Mark B.

Reviews


Sutliff - Match 20
Nothing to Complain About
It has been a number of years since I smoked the original 965, so I don’t know how much I can trust my memory. Nevertheless, however much it is or is not similar to 965, I can say this with confidence: The Sutliff version is darn good.

Cornell & Diehl - Eight State Burley 2oz
Freedom of Speech
I have to say I object to the idea that someone should not review a tobacco unless they meet an undefined level of knowledge or experience, if only on grounds of freedom of speech. I know I, and I think most people, are able to judge for ourselves the value of any particular review. There is no reason to take any of this too seriously, no matter how much we love our pipes and tobaccos.

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Blog's Commented on

Codger Country: Sail Green
  • ► Does this ever take me back! Sail Green was what I smoked when I first began to smoke a pipe from time to time in the 1970s. I remember I liked it, but of course I knew so little about pipe tobacco then that I had no real means of comparison. I don’t actually remember WHY I liked it or what it was like. Nothing more than vague sense memory remains. Too long ago! But now you’ve made me curious, so maybe I’ll get a pouch of it. Maybe it will jog some memories.
Introducing Rivertown Tobacco: Value Tobacco, Bold Flavor
  • ► I look forward to trying some of the Rivertown blends. I hope I will like them as much as I did various offerings from Sutliff, from whom I have bought tobacco over the years probably more than from any other manufacturer. I admit I have been almost incandescent with anger and disappointment over the closing of Sutliff and MacBaren. Sutliff, in business for 175 years (begun in the city where I live in 1849), MacBaren for about a century. And then suddenly both shut down—although, if what I’ve read is accurate, they were still profitable. One wonders what was STG’s motive. My idea is that it’s as if Ford bought GM for no reason other than to shut it down. Eliminate the competition! Maximize profits! That is something much nastier than ordinary free enterprise. But I wish Rivertown the best of luck! I was hoping something like this would happen. The lotus grows out of the mud.
  • ► I should have added that over the years I tried many, many Sutliff blends, and I liked a lot of them—and a few not so much. I liked too many to list here to ask you to duplicate, but just to mention a few: If I had to choose one Sutliff blend I will miss a LOT it is 1M. Create that again! Also Eastfarthing. Many people—not all—used to rave about Molto Dolce. I never got around to trying it. Come up with your own version of that. That’s just for starters. To be candid, I’m a bit anxious about C&D being behind Rivertown. I don’t always like their tobaccos. People rave about Autumn Evening, so much so that I bought some. I thought it was godawful; harsh and full of chemicals. But still, good luck to Rivertown.
Letter From the Editor: New Commenting Functions on the Daily Reader
  • ► What?! Sutliff is CLOSING?
Letter from the Editor: Transitions
  • ► Chuck, like you, I have a contentious relationship with transitions. Some of the examples you mentioned I share. I veer back and forth between trying to accept them and resenting them. I am NOT looking forward to no longer seeing your essays, but at the same time I wish you the best of luck and a thorough enjoyment in life for whatever comes next.
Sir Francis Drake
  • ► Thank you, I appreciate the article, and I enjoy reading about Drake. However, perhaps a little more care could have been taken in the writing, which was often clumsy and awkward. On two or three occasions I ran into sentences that literally made no sense, as if words or whole clauses had been left out by accident. Don’t wish to be mean, just a bit of constructive criticism. Drake sounds like a strong leader, but also a quite ruthless bastard. Representative of his time, no doubt.
Stephen Fry: Adventures in Pipe Smoking
  • ► So why quit? Felt a need to jump onto the anti-smoking bandwagon?
  • ► Sure, I can imagine that, it’s a possibility. But it’s impossible to make judgements about any particular individual when there are so many factors to consider. All questions about health and smoking are based on studies for whole populations, not individuals. Worse yet, many studies have been poorly designed, or are even junk science, i.e. designed to get a result decided in advance. What can be stated with confidence, however, is that pipe smoking, generally—again, not referring to any one person—is way, way less of a health risk than cigarette smoking. That was mostly what I had in mind. The article also stated when Fry quit smoking, which was just when the antismoking mania was really taking off in the UK. Don’t get me wrong, I think Fry is a very talented man. I’ve often enjoyed his work.